Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

96 reviews

bridget_t's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, and Ableism

bookscattracks's review

3.0

I'll be honest, it's been hard for me to know what to write about this book. I feel strange passing judgement on a memoir like this, rating it, when it contains the content that it does. If anyone is thinking about reading, I'd say make sure you're aware of that first. 

Overall, this is a book about autism, and there were a lot of good points brought up, that I hope other people who have maybe struggled with autism, and been misdiagnosed, can find helpful. It is a book about autism, but there is also so much trauma. Again, I don't really feel right passing judgement on someone's personal story, and I know that using comedy to speak about difficult times in your life, can help some people. But I just couldn't find it funny. 

There was also a lot of language and thinking that didn't sit right with me, including fatphobia, double standards with other women, and just the general looking down on others. Again, it made it hard for me to laugh along. Maybe I am just doing the usual of focusing on the negatives, but this was a tough read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Fatphobia

raes_library's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt

lennie_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Ableism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Biphobia, Vomit, Alcohol, Drug use, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, and Excrement

readingpicnic's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective

5.0

Very real and unfiltered account of being a late diagnosed autistic woman, with lots of humor throughout. Fern also points out lots of common autistic traits throughout to the reader, to which I realized that so many things I do are shared experiences in the autistic community that I thought were just applicable to me…very validating to read though. The commentary on autistic women becoming strippers and/or sex workers was so interesting and something I’ve never heard before, but it makes sense with how she laid it out coupled with her own experiences. I loved the audiobook narration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Ableism, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

lbelow's review against another edition

5.0

Powerful and powerfully relatable memoir. Prior to reading, I was pretty sure I'm not autistic, but so many experiences in this book make me wonder. Maybe that was why I glommed onto this book so hard. Then again, it could just be the engaging and open way Fern Brady writes. This book discusses some heavy topics but, maybe because of the light, casual tone, it didn't feel like a dark book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Body shaming, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Gaslighting, Violence, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Alcohol, Self harm, Ableism, and Child abuse

femke_152's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Self harm

lauradvb's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

jillyclaire23's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Woah. I feel very raw after reading this book. I am so glad it exists, and I am grateful for Fern’s full honesty about her life as a late-diagnosed autistic woman who grew up poor and struggles with meltdowns. Her openness helps other autistic women feel less alone. Even though I’ve done my fair share of research about neurodivergence (duh), I managed to learn new facts, like how medicine affects autistic people differently than allistics because our nervous systems are so sensitive. That’s really important information to know!! There is simply not enough research out there on neurodivergence so we have to rely on each other.

I was wishing for a slightly more hopeful ending to help me recover from reading how many traumatic things happened to Fern. I guess I appreciate that she didn’t try to tie it up into a pretty bow. In the conclusion, though, it almost felt like she was conceding to the “autism parents” out there who are raising autistic kids instead of addressing actual autistic adult readers and giving them hope. This felt uncharacteristic of her since she discussed the problem of autism research being geared toward parents of autistic children and disregarding the fact that those kids grow up to be adults. So the ending was slightly disappointing, but it still moved me. My other issue is her fat-shaming and negative descriptions of people’s appearances. Also, I would’ve appreciated if her descriptions of other women and her relationship to them were more problematized—a lot of them came off as internalized misogyny. 

Despite this, I am grateful for any chance to hear from another autistic woman and her experience. Like she says in the book, learning about your neurotype is like a REALLY accurate Meyers-Briggs test. The sense of community I get in hearing her talk about experiences that resemble my own is pretty lifechanging. I also appreciated reading about her unusual career path in life. It’s hard to be surrounded by unrealistic neurotypical narratives all the time! 

After reading, I promptly watched her interviews and comedy specials. She’s awesome. Her understanding and sense of justice when it comes to the experiences and treatment of neurodivergent people are refreshing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Police brutality

hanne_chummy's review

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Grief, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, Misogyny, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Addiction, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis